#EncourageAYoungWriterDay

The Story Behind National Encourage A Young Writer Day

National Encourage A Young Writer Day is observed on April 10th, and it was created with a straightforward goal: remind the adults in a young person’s life that a few words of encouragement about their writing can shape the rest of their creative trajectory. The day has been attributed to the blog platform Day of the Year, though like many modern observance days, its exact founding date is fuzzy. What matters more than who started it is the research behind why it works.

Studies on creative development consistently show that external validation during childhood and adolescence has an outsized impact on whether someone continues pursuing creative work as an adult. A 2014 study published in the Creativity Research Journal found that young people who received specific, positive feedback on their writing - not just generic praise like “good job” but comments identifying what worked and why - were significantly more likely to continue writing voluntarily over the following year.

Why Young Writers Quit

The statistics on childhood creative writing are striking. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, approximately 97% of first graders say they enjoy writing. By eighth grade, that number drops below 50%. By high school graduation, fewer than 20% of students write anything voluntarily outside of school assignments.

The reasons are predictable but worth examining. School writing becomes almost exclusively evaluative around fourth or fifth grade. Instead of writing stories and poems because they want to, kids start writing five-paragraph essays because they have to. Red ink replaces encouragement. The message shifts from “tell me your story” to “fix your grammar.” For many kids, that transition kills the spark entirely.

The pressure of standardized testing makes things worse. Teachers who might prefer to nurture creative writing find themselves drilling persuasive essay formats and evidence-based response templates. The Common Core standards that rolled out in 2010 emphasized argumentative and informational writing over narrative and creative work. Some schools cut creative writing electives entirely to make room for test prep.

Social comparison also accelerates in middle school. A ten-year-old who happily wrote fan fiction might suddenly become self-conscious after reading a classmate’s more polished work. Without someone to say “your ideas are interesting and your voice is unique - keep going,” that self-consciousness often hardens into permanent avoidance.

Famous Writers Who Almost Stopped

Some of the most celebrated writers in history nearly gave up early because they lacked encouragement - or actively received discouragement. Stephen King threw the manuscript for Carrie in the trash. His wife Tabitha fished it out and told him to finish it. The book sold over a million copies in its first year in paperback and launched one of the most prolific careers in publishing history.

Madeleine L’Engle received 26 rejection letters for A Wrinkle in Time before it was finally published in 1962. The book went on to win the Newbery Medal and has sold over 14 million copies. L’Engle later said that each rejection made it harder to sit down and write, and that it was her mother’s unwavering belief in the story that kept her going.

Sylvia Plath’s journals reveal how deeply she was affected by both encouragement and criticism. Her mother Aurelia saved every piece of writing Sylvia produced from age five onward. That act of preservation communicated something words alone could not: your writing matters enough to keep.

More recently, Jason Reynolds - who has become one of the most important voices in young adult literature - has spoken openly about growing up without reading books because none of them reflected his life. It was a teacher who handed him poetry by Langston Hughes and Queen Latifah’s autobiography that changed everything. One person noticing what a young writer might connect with made the difference between a career that has reached millions of readers and one that never happened.

What Good Encouragement Actually Looks Like

Not all encouragement works equally well. Research by psychologist Carol Dweck on growth mindset has shown that praising effort and process produces better outcomes than praising talent or ability. Telling a child “you are a great writer” actually creates pressure to maintain that identity, which can lead to risk avoidance. Telling them “I love how you described that character - the detail about the scuffed shoes made me see them immediately” teaches the child what effective writing looks like and motivates them to try it again.

Here are specific things you can do on April 10th - and any other day:

Read what they have written and respond to the content, not just the mechanics. Ask questions about their characters and plot choices. Treat their stories as real creative work, because they are.

Give them a quality notebook or a pen that feels good to write with. Physical writing tools signal that the activity matters. A child who receives a leather-bound journal understands that someone takes their writing seriously.

Share your own early writing if you have any. Showing a young writer that every adult started somewhere demystifies the process and normalizes the awkward early stages.

Point them toward age-appropriate writing communities. NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program, the Scholastic Writing Awards (which have been running since 1923 and have alumni including Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, and Andy Warhol), and local library writing groups all provide community and structure.

Most importantly, never dismiss what they write as “just” anything. “Just” a diary entry, “just” fan fiction, “just” a poem. Every published author started by writing something that could be dismissed with that word. The difference was usually someone who chose not to dismiss it.

Writing and Mental Health in Young People

Beyond the creative benefits, writing has well-documented mental health effects for young people. Expressive writing - putting thoughts and feelings into words on paper - has been studied extensively since James Pennebaker’s landmark 1986 research at the University of Texas. His studies found that writing about emotional experiences for as little as 15 minutes a day over four days improved both physical and psychological health markers.

For teenagers especially, writing provides a private space to process complicated emotions without judgment. Journaling, poetry, and fiction all serve different but overlapping therapeutic functions. A 2018 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Health Psychology confirmed that expressive writing interventions reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms in adolescents, with effects lasting up to six months after the writing exercises ended.

Encouraging a young person to write is not just about nurturing a potential novelist. It is about giving them a tool for understanding their own mind that they can use for the rest of their life.

Related Hashtags

Looking for more hashtags to use on April 10th? Check out #CinnamonCrescentDay and #FarmAnimalsDay, which also fall around this date. For more education and creativity-themed hashtags, see #NameYourselfDay and #NationalSiblingsDay.